Rapid isotopic exchange in nanoparticles.

Chakraborty, Papri; Nag, Abhijit; Natarajan, Ganapati; Bandyopadhyay, Nayanika; Paramasivam, Ganesan; Panwar, Manoj Kumar; Chakrabarti, Jaydeb; Pradeep, Thalappil · Sci Adv · 2019

basic_science · Level V

Where this comes from

Abstract

Rapid solution-state exchange dynamics in nanoscale pieces of matter is revealed, taking isotopically pure atomically precise clusters as examples. As two isotopically pure silver clusters made of <sup>107</sup>Ag and <sup>109</sup>Ag are mixed, an isotopically mixed cluster of the same entity results, similar to the formation of HDO, from H<sub>2</sub>O and D<sub>2</sub>O. This spontaneous process is driven by the entropy of mixing and involves events at multiple time scales.